


Scissors

by teenunicorn



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rebuild of Evangelion | Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition
Genre: Aged-Up Characters, Angst, Anxiety, College AU, Depression, Everyone's gay, Fluff, Homophobia, Multi, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Transphobia, University AU, Women's College AU, agender!kaworu, also, genderbend au, i just made all of the kids into non-boys, sort of, trans slurs, transfem!shinji, transgender character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-20 03:11:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11327484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teenunicorn/pseuds/teenunicorn
Summary: Shinji begins her first year at Nerv College for Women, the women’s college that her father, Ikari Gendo, happens to work at. Nothing seems to be changing for her until she needs to get a haircut and inadvertently meets Nagisa Kaworu, the campus’s unofficial stylist...





	1. Orientation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: homophobia

Shinji was all at once relieved and absolutely terrified when she arrived on Nerv’s campus, alone, for orientation. Through the Nerv Class of 2020 facebook group, she’d found an advertisement from an alum in the area who was willing to help new first years — Nerv students, naturally, didn’t call them “freshman” — her move her stuff from her apartment to the Nerv dorm she would be staying in, Casper. There wasn’t much, just her bedding (mostly plain, dark blue sheets and comforter), some artwork Shinji had printed out from the internet (at the public library, so it was in black and white of all things), some basic school supplies, a laptop, vintage SDAT player, and her sparse wardrobe. So when she opened the door to the room she would be staying in for the next nine months, with someone named Asuka, she wasn’t exactly prepared for what was to come.

Male. Underwear. Models. Posters of them, all of them measuring at least 18” by 24", everywhere, covering nearly every corner of the room. Shinji felt her stomach tie in a knot; pictures of nude men not only made her uncomfortable because, well, it was looked down upon but also tended to jolt her back into the reality that her body wasn’t as she pictured it. It felt like someone had taken the bags from Abercrombie & Fitch and made wallpaper out of them. Shinji, naturally, due to her body dysmorphia, hated the Abercrombie & Fitch's bag designs.

The semi-nude men were most concentrated on the side of the room whose bed was already made up, and there seemed to be a gradient that radiated out from that epicenter. The bed looked sort of like it was straight out of a catalogue or magazine, like Shinji’s new roommate had just literally taken a bed from an Ikea display and dragged it in here. Upon closer examination, smaller photos were also taped above the bed — what appeared to be selfies, all of which focused on a red-haired girl, probably this Asuka person. The desk on what was now established as Asuka’s side was dominated by a menagerie of all kinds of make-up products. On closer inspection, Shinji recognized a couple of the names — eyeliner, lipstick — but the rest was incomprehensible to her.

Shinji counted herself lucky that she had just missed her roommate. Looking down at her meager three boxes, all she had in the world, she felt totally unprepared by comparison. That was when the door slammed open.

“Come on! Bring the boxes in here, and hurry up, there’s still more in the truck outside!” a loud, female voice barked. Shinji could almost feel lasers emanating from the redhead's blue eyes and shooting through her cowering body on the floor. She wondered fearfully for a second if this roommate had xray vision, or something like the TSA’s body scanners. “Tch,” Shinji heard the voice scoff, seemingly at Shinji.

A stampede of numerous people — Shinji was too out of it to keep track — stomped in and out of the room, carrying an endless number of boxes. Amongst all of the rushing and yelling, Shinji managed to squeeze herself — with her boxes — into the little space made between the foot of her bed and the side of her dresser, clutching one of her boxes while the other two sat directly in front of her, trying to make herself as small as possible, squeezing her eyes shut. The other girl — Asuka, she presumed — continued to yell orders to her small army of movers.

“Ugh, these dorm rooms are so cramped! Where am I supposed to put my stuff? I knew I would get stuck in a dingle of all things — should’ve faked to get a medical single, then at least I would have the whole room to myself,” Asuka grumbled, having finally shooed away her platoon. “Hey, are you Shinji? I’m Asuka.”

Shinji made no attempt move, partially because she’d stuffed herself in a tight corner and under one of her heavier boxes, but mostly because yelling was scary and definitely anxiety inducing, and she also had no clue what a dingle was.

“ **Hey** , you, who do you think I’m talking to, idiot? There’s no one else in the room. Are you listening to me?” Asuka demanded.

Shinji slowly opened her eyes. It was indeed the orange-haired girl from the photos. “S-sorry, um, yes,” she said slowly, trying to avoid stuttering during their first interaction. She normally only stuttered if she was incredibly anxious (not that she wasn’t right now), but on top of her nervousness, her voice felt creaky and unused, like how awkward and unwieldy it felt to play the cello after not practicing for a couple of months. “Um, nice to meet you,” she continued, trying to get up from her seated position, but her legs had fallen asleep.

“Hmm, are you always this clumsy?” Asuka half-interrogated Shinji, her arms crossed. She made no attempt to help the other girl up as Shinji was trying to decide between risking dropping her box or dealing with the prickly pain of her sleeping limbs. Something in her eyes and the way she wrinkled her nose told Shinji that there was something about herself that her new roommate found unforgivable. She’d heard once that people can detect others’ political and even sexual preferences through their sense of smell. She wondered briefly if trans people could be similarly sniffed out.

“Are you always this irritable?” Shinji wanted to ask, but somehow managed to stuff her own words back down her own throat before she was forced to (literally) eat them herself. “S-sorry,” she started, “I-I’m just not very used to lots of people at once, like I’m an introvert, y-you know?”

“Hmmph, okay,” Asuka assented, although the way she said it made it sound like being an introvert was still some kind of minor offense. “Well, while we’re here, I have some ground rules to lay down.” Shinji gulped instinctively.

“One, I’m probably going to have boyfriends over during the year, so if we’re in here, you gotta scram.” Shinji silently thought, I feel bad for all of the Abercrombie models who have to witness that.

“Two, don’t touch or move my stuff, under any circumstances.

“Three, don’t you dare fucking touch me if you’re one of those dyke types. Stay on your goddamn side of the room.” Shinji winced; although she was (pretty) sure she was straight, she’d been called “gay” enough times in middle school before she was “out,” that she’d always had a soft spot for people who did identify as gay. “Is that clear?”

“Yes,” Shinji agreed, stopping herself from sarcastically adding “ma’am” to the end, as she thought that might just further antagonize the bossy and homophobic girl.

“Great,” Asuka replied, before exiting the room without another word and using her characteristic (as far as Shinji could tell) door slam.

Shinji couldn’t help but wince at the loud sound, shoulder’s reflexively scrunching as she whimpered slightly in pain. Maybe this is like exposure therapy, Shinji thought miserably, and Asuka’s going to cure me of my behaviorally conditioned expectation of pain from loud noises.

Perhaps the saddest part about this was that this was, in fact, better than Shinji’s own home life.

~~~

Asuka, for some reason, demanded that Shinji accompany her to orientation's campus organization fair, or “org fair,” as seasoned Nerv students referred to it. It was held at Nerv’s campus center, which was, ironically, not at the center of campus at all: in fact, it was at the opposite end of campus from Casper.

Just when Shinji entered the crowded, noisy campus center — loud drums from the Japanese drumming group, music blasting from the student-run radio station, and a hundred other unidentifiable sounds — Asuka just dipped and left her there. The drumming seemed to only accelerate in sync with Shinji’s frantically beating heart, and she wondered facetiously but anxiously whether she could have a heart attack from the reverberations alone.

At some point, she began wandering around the the campus’ expo hall where the org fair was taking place, mostly being repulsed by the loud drumming to the opposite end of the room. Someone caught his eye though; beside one of the tables stood an ethereal being with pale, pale skin and grey hair, and upon meeting Shinji’s sensory-overloaded stare (she wouldn’t have dared look for so long otherwise), Shinji found herself captivated by ruby-red eyes.

She also found herself walking toward the table, still staring at the person but not really seeing.

It’s just because they’re super pale and have an unusual hair and eye color and also kind of just objectively attractive…right? I’m probably being super rude…they probably get this kind of thing all the time, Shinji thought to herself, slightly dazed.

“Do I know you?” asked an impossibly smooth, almost musical voice.

“Uh-uh-uh,” Shinji stuttered, glancing at the table’s brochures: robots, circuits, soldering irons, computers. Oh, this must be the engineering club…the engineering club?! No, dad’s the advisor for this club! “Uh no, I-I was just going,” she stuttered out before immediately turning completely around and walking the other way, although not fast enough to avoid hearing that same musical voice chuckle.

“I hope we’ll meet again,” Nagisa Kaworu mused to themselves.

~~~

Shinji had signed up for over half a dozen clubs — most of which she promptly forgot she’d signed up for and had to face the guilt of receiving emails during the next week for so many without either the means or intention of joining even a quarter of them.

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, she never ran into the beautiful stranger again that week, despite that classes finally began two days after the disastrous org fair. And fortunately, but also unfortunately, she’d also sort of made a friend, or at least a potential study buddy.

“What’s your name? I'm Aida Kensuke, but call me Kensuke,” asked the curly-haired, freckled brunette.

“Umm, Ikari Shinji, but you can call me–”

“Wai-wai-wait! Ikari, as in Ikari Gendo?!”

“Umm-”

“Like the professor of the engineering department?”

“Well, umm, yes–”

“Omg, here, at Nerv?! That's so cool!”

“Umm, thanks–”

“What’re you planning on majoring in? Not math, I presume?” Kensuke asked. They had Calculus I together — Shinji’s worst and perhaps most boring lecture. It was women’s college, so their calculus classes were taught by professors who were sympathetic to the plight of women in math, but despite his sympathy, Prof. Chang just couldn’t manage to be interesting — well at least to Shinji. “Are you going to major in engineering, like your dad did?”

“Umm, well no–”

“But still, that's so cool! I'm such a big fan of your dad's work — do you think you could get me into the engineering program here?”

“Umm, well, m-maybe–”

“Oh wow! Thanks a bunch!” Kensuke exclaimed, as if Shinji had just promised her a spot in her dad's research lab.

“Yeah, um, don't mention it,” Shinji replied, turning back to the blackboard and her notes, all the while Kensuke was still chattering in her ear. There was a noticeable gap between her notes (she’d written only the name of the class and the date) and the professor's scrawl; she almost wished the prof would tell Kensuke and her off just so the other girl would leave her alone. This was going to be a long semester...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At women's schools, we like to joke that we forget that coed ones exist because we actually do forget a lot of the time, so I was inspired by all of the college AUs currently being posted in the Kawoshin tag to write this fic, but set in a women's college (because that's the only college experience I know enough to actually write about lol).
> 
> Disclaimer: Normally, I don't even attempt to write multichapter works because it's difficult for me to finish things, and I might also just get too busy to write once school starts up again. BUT, this time, I actually have a pretty good idea of where things should be going + more chapters written/waiting to be published.


	2. Puppy Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinji has lunch with Asuka and her friends, and things don't go so well...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: misgendering, homophobia

To Shinji’s surprise and dismay, Asuka actually insisted that Shinji accompany her to each of her meals — it both gave Shinji someone to cling to during the frenzied lunch and dinner rushes, but prevented her from branching out more, limiting her to Asuka’s circle. Shinji was also pretty sure that Asuka only wanted her there so that Shinji could grab her extra food if she went up to get seconds.

It was only a week into school and Asuka had made nearly infinitely more friends than Shinji, because Shinji had made precisely zero actual friends she could hang out with; Kensuke, so far, seemed to be more interested in Shinji’s dad than Shinji herself.

“Come on, Toji,” Kensuke was whining as Shinji sat down at the circular table with her tray — hamburger, fries, ketchup, and a soda (the food wasn’t too bad here at Nerv) — right in between Asuka and Kensuke. “You should ask Hikari out! Do you even _see_ the way she looks at you? Do I need to remind you?” she exclaimed, pointing wildly at her video camera.

Toji, Kensuke’s roommate and best friend from high school, blushed before crossing her arms and looking away; apparently the cafeteria wall had suddenly become very interesting. “Don’t make me punch you, Aida,” she grumbled.

“Who’s the one here who knows how to operate a gun, though? Hmm?” Aida Kensuke was in Nerv’s ROTC chapter, a fact that she was insanely proud of — in fact, she was currently in her uniform, head-to-toe in camouflage (even though it was probably 90 degrees out today, everyone else was wearing shorts).

“Yeah, well I could probably outrun your ass any day!” Toji fired back — she was on practically every varsity sport after all (she had to be for her scholarships, because her little sister’s medical bills were slowly bankrupting her family). Toji’s athletic prowess amazed Shinji on a daily basis — she could barely run the mile in high school.

“Settle down, boys,” Asuka growled as she aggressively attacked her hamburger. Shinji watched her devour it in horror. Kensuke and Toji paid her no mind though, and continued to bicker.

Mari, who was sitting on the other side of Asuka (and was definitely Asuka’s best friend at Nerv so far), clicked her tongue in disapproval. “Now, princess, just because they’re butch and not fems like _you and me_ –“

“When did I ever say that I was a lesbian like _you?!_ ”

“–doesn’t mean they’re not girls too,” Mari finished, unfazed by Asuka’s interruption. She continued to practically drape herself over Asuka, one arm slung over the redhead’s shoulders, yet, in spite of her outburst, Asuka wasn’t complaining about it (although to tell the truth, Mari did that to everyone).

Asuka “hmmph”-ed in response, but otherwise didn’t protest any further. Shinji decided to focus on her food instead of the conflict going on around her.

“What about Puppy Boy here?” Mari asked in her sing-song voice. “Hello, Puppy Boy?"

Shinji figured she was talking about someone else; Mari had a lot of nicknames for everyone, too many for Shinji to keep track of anyway.

“Shinji, I think she means _you,_ ” Asuka sighed in exasperation.

Shinji looked up in semi-horror at Mari. Does she know? I didn’t tell Asuka, right? Otherwise how would she know? Why else would she call me a boy, especially after what she just said? Oh god, if Mari found out, it’s only a matter of time until Asuka finds out, and then she’ll kick me out and I’ll have to find a new roommate and–

“What, does Puppy Boy not like her name?” Mari asked, cocking her head to the side slightly. Shinji searched the other girl’s face for any signs that she knew more than Shinji herself had let on, but Mari wasn’t smirking knowingly or anything.

Maybe she doesn’t know…and this unfortunate nickname is just a coincidence? “Ah no, it’s fine, I-I guess,” Shinji conceded. It would be weird if I made a big deal out of it…right?

“Good!” Mari exclaimed with a smile, laughing and tightly hugging Asuka, who looked a little bit more than peeved. “See, Princess? I told you that ‘Puppy Boy’ was a good fit~”

“You don’t give us much of a choice,” Kensuke commented.

“That’s what makes it special! I pick them out specially for each of you, but _especially_ for Princess here,” Mari responded flippantly, shooting a wink at Asuka.

Asuka glared at Mari for a second before nervously flitting her eyes towards the others sitting around the table. “…Can we talk about how cramped the rooms are here in Casper?” Asuka demanded suddenly, wanting to change the subject.

“They’re dingles, what do you expect?” Toji grumbled dismissively, as if annoyed that her pissing contest with Kensuke was being interrupted.

Shinji had since learned that a dingle can be either a double turned into a single or a single turned into a double; unfortunately, she was housed in the latter of the two variants.

“I just _don’t_ understand why they couldn’t have _maybe_ given us _slightly larger rooms!_ ”

“I dunno, I think it’s just the culture here; besides, as upperclasswomen, you get much larger rooms…” Shinji tried to guess.

“Who asked you? You didn’t even know what a dingle was until yesterday! What makes _you_ think you know _anything?_ ”

“Princess–“ Mari started to say, a tone of warning in her voice.

“What? Are you defending that idiot? Why do you have to this big baby's _mother_ and _hold her hand_ , god…” Asuka exploded.

Shinji visibly shrunk in her seat, and even though she’d only finished half of her burger and touched only a couple of her fries, she got up to put away her tray. Mari and Kensuke looked at Shinji with at least some sympathy behind their eyes but didn’t say a word. Toji glanced at Asuka, who was busy pretending that she was really into her wilted salad, a stubbornly angry expression on her face, and the other two passive bystanders. Just as Shinji was about to exit the cafeteria doors, Toji almost stood up from her seat, but Mari stopped her, mouthing, “Just let her go.”

~~~

Mari quietly sighed as a palpably awkward silence fell over the table. Kensuke and Toji immediately shoveled down the rest of their lunch and quietly left the table.

She leaned back in her seat. “You know, Princess…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, that was low, Shinji’s our little baby, blah blah blah,” Asuka said, still not looking away from her limp vegetables.

Well…that’s a start on the way to an apology, Mari thought. Especially for Princess…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, Kaworu doesn't reappear for a little bit; I'm trying to take my time exploring and developing the other characters.
> 
> However, I did have this chapter fully written basically at the time of publishing the first one; ~~I was just too nervous/anxious to publish it (cries)~~. I also have the first couple of chapters that actually have Kaworu in them written right now, so the wait shouldn't be too long!


	3. The Common Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite recent events, Shinji tries to write an essay, but Misato interferes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: misgendering

Shinji was, in a word, shook. She hadn’t been so derailed since, well, her mom died when she was a kid. Even coming out in high school was easier; people just didn’t care about Ikari Shinji enough to bully her, so they definitely didn’t care enough now that Ikari Shinji was _trans_.

In any case, even when Asuka wasn’t there, Shinji couldn’t bear to be _near_ the room, let alone in it. Luckily (and most likely unfortunately), Asuka couldn’t either (if both of them were great at one thing, it was avoiding difficult situations and, consequently, each other), and with it being the weekend, Asuka went off to her frat parties at the universities in the city, supposedly with the boyfriend she’d made in the week they’d been here. Shinji had practically haunted her dorm room thus far, she was so tied to it; now she had to find somewhere else to go.

Offhandedly, she decided to ask for some advice from the one person she’d managed to befriend more or less of her own volition: Kensuke.

Shinji:  i just dunno what to do!

Shinji:  ive barely explored the campus, the library seems too quiet to be in, but my dorm room…

Kensuke:  hav u tried ur dorms common room

Shinji:  …no

Kensuke:  their p sweet rlly

Kensuke:  i do all of my hw there usually

Shinji:  oh okay, thanks!

To tell the truth, Shinji had never actually seen her dorm’s common room in the week she’d lived at Casper, so once she gathered up her laptop with its charger, SDAT, and headphones, she rode the elevator down and began to wander around the halls. The main living room was on the second floor of the building, which was confusingly referred to as the "first floor," because the real first floor was the “ground floor.” During orientation, Shinji had almost moved into a room on the building’s “third floor” instead of the "fourth floor;" it was only when she belatedly realized that there were _names_ that weren’t _hers_ on the wall next to the door that she avoided that embarrassment. The “third floor” was all upperclasswomen, nonetheless!

The living room was thankfully deserted when Shinji got there; it was almost no different from being in her room alone, only that she was accompanied by a few couches, chairs, and coffee tables in addition to a grand piano whose scuffed black exterior had certainly seen better days. She plopped down on a couch, began to listen to track 25 on her SDAT, and work on her essay that was due on Monday. Fifteen minutes later, though, someone sat down on the couch across from her.

“Hey, hey!” said the person. Shinji finally looked up; it was none other than Katsuragi Misato, Casper’s residence hall director, or RD. She insisted that every girl call her by her given name.

“Hey, what’s up Shinji?” Misato slurred; she had a reputation for being frequently tipsy around Nerv’s campus, even among the RD’s. “I haven't seen one of those cassette players in _years!_ Do you kids these days even _know_ how popular those things were back in the day?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Shinji replied, ever polite. How is she qualified to look after us?

“Now you don’t have an MP3 player or like an iPhone or something?”

“No, well, actually…” Shinji said, hesitant to say anything further.

“Why not? Is the tape in there something special?”

“Umm…” Shinji started, still unsure about how much she should tell this virtual stranger. What if I say something that tips off a red flag and get kicked out or committed to a mental hospital?…not that that’s happened to me before or anything… “It’s something like that.”

“Huh, how neat! I never thought that anyone would do that these days. Who was it?”

“Um, excuse me?”

“Who was the person who made it?” Misato leaned forward, a goofy yet sly grin pasted across her face. “Boyfriend? Or,” she started to say, noting Shinji’s short hair, “ _girlfriend?_ ” The smirk across her face grew wider.

“Ah, no, um, well–“

“Misato, leave the poor boy alone,” said a distinctly male voice from the entrance to the living room. Shinji winced, both from the misgendering and the male voice. Though she had male professors, namely for Calculus I (go figure, you’d think women in stem would be important at a women’s college), she wasn’t used to hearing men in the dorms.

“Kaji,” Misato growled, her grin notably doing a complete 180. “You know, I have to wonder why these sensible, liberal, social-justice-warrior women here like you so much; you just misgendered ‘poor’ Shinji here. Shinji, this…person is Kaji Ryoji, professor of poli-sci here at Nerv.”

If there was one thing Misato did have a head for, even while drunk, it was pronouns; her ability to remember every resident’s preferences both amazed and flattered Shinji, who could barely remember her own despite being trans herself.

“N-no it’s fine! I’m kinda used to it,” Shinji said, relieved to put even just a tiny bit of the actual truth in her words; she still hadn’t disclosed to anyone at Nerv that she was actually trans.

“Ah, I must insist that I apologize, Shinji, I’m afraid that I’ve made a terrible first impression; it’s nice to meet you though,” Kaji said, giving a slightly sheepish smile and scratching the back of his head as he walked behind Misato, draping himself over her shoulders. “You didn’t seem to protest as much just a few months ago, or when I was in grad school, or when we were in _college,_ ” he muttered into her ear, just loud enough for Shinji to hear.

Shinji blushed; as Misato’s eyes concentrated back on her, she prayed to god that the older woman wouldn’t pick up on her own embarrassment.

“C’mon, Kaji,” she said instead, pushing him off her and standing up. “You’re distracting Shinji from studying!”

Kaji, despite her protests, insisted on wrapping his hands around her waist. “You seemed like a willing participant too though–“

“Ugh, you’re gross. Bye, Shinji, good luck with studying!” Misato detached his limbs from her waist as she began to walk back to the Casper RD apartment where she lived. Kaji gave a small wave and followed Misato out.

The not-couple’s bickering slowly faded down the hallway as Shinji gave a sigh of relief, finally getting a chance to return to her essay.

~~~

Misato sat in one of the chairs meant for students in the office of the Melchior RD, Akagi Ritsuko. Ritsuko sat in her desk chair, leaning back while grading some tests; she was both a professor (specializing in computational biology) and an RD at Nerv. Kaji was leaning against the doorframe, looking on.

“You know, I’m going to have to do something about Shinji and Asuka’s roommate situation. How are they supposed to survive the rest of the year if they can’t even get through two weeks without having a situation like this?!” Misato whined to her best friend and colleague.

“Hmm, well, it’s certainly not helping Shinji’s or Asuka’s test scores,” Ritsuko mused aloud to herself.

Kaji sighed; while he didn’t have the pleasure of having Shinji as his pupil, his World Politics class was graced by Asuka’s presence. She certainly had seemed distracted during class on Friday, and not in the usual way either.

“They’re going to need to learn how to work it out if they’re going to stay in their room for the rest of the year, never mind the semester,” Ritsuko continued.

“Hey, I have an idea,” Kaji suddenly exclaimed, waggling his finger at Misato, gesturing for her to scoot closer to him. She rolled her eyes but cocked her head to the side anyway as Kaji leaned down, cupping his hands around his mouth as he whispered in her ear. Ritsuko glanced over her glasses at the two, stared at them hard for a bit (it’s not like they were in high school or even college still, these were supposed to be adults!), and returned to her grading.

“Ugh,” Misato groaned, having heard all of Kaji’s plan.

“But it’ll work,” he said, making a move to drape himself around her shoulders again.

Misato saw it coming though, and automatically blocked him with a practiced gesture, one hand restraining one of his and the other going right under his chin, to prevent him from nestling it in the crook of her shoulder.

“Ow, you really haven’t changed a bit since college,” he quipped, going somewhat limp and giving up. Misato let him go.

“No I haven't, but it will work,” she admitted.

“As long as these grades don’t fail either of them out before you get a chance,” Ritsuko chimed in, still not looking up from the tests.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I headcanon Kensuke as being a really lazy texter who use really improper grammar/all of the texting language known to mankind.
> 
> That, and Ritsuko just sort of looking on and acting like she’s above it all, above all this nonsense that Misato and Kaji get up to (or more like Kaji sort of reinforces...).
> 
> I'm kinda more or less loosely following the NGE anime storyline, at least for the beginning.


	4. Synchronization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Misato tries to get Asuka and Shinji into a healthier relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: description of a panic attack/social anxiety

A week had gone by since the disastrous lunch (Shinji still ate lunch with Asuka and her friends, although she had the excuse that some of them were becoming her own friends as well), and the pact of silence between the two roommates was almost becoming the norm.

(Not like the old normal was so great — it used to be that Shinji was constantly left wondering if Asuka thought that insulting people would make them like her more. It certainly wasn’t working on Shinji.)

Shinji had almost really started living in the common room; she kept her books and bags there now, and her laptop too, because there was practically no one there otherwise. Misato had been nice about it at first, but lately Shinji could tell that this was definitely not a viable solution. However, no better ones showed themselves, and Shinji felt pretty content to stick with her chosen pattern of coping.

~~~

Asuka was in Prof. Kaji's office, discussing possible topics of her first World Politics paper.

“Professor, can you think of anything that might be a good topic for the prompt ‘empowerment and disenfranchisement’?”

Kaji laughed a little to himself. “Yes, but you’re the one who’s writing the paper, not me.”

“Yeah, but professor, you’re the one who will be reading it.”

“That may be true, but I’m going to be spending way less time on it than you will. It better be something that you’re interested in!”

“What _I’m_ interested in?” echoed Asuka.

“Yes, what you’re interested in. For example, I enjoy growing watermelons in my spare time.”

“What do watermelons have to do with empowerment and disenfranchisement?”

“Nothing, but what I’m saying is that the best way to write this paper is to pick a topic that you’re really interested in for your own reasons, and for your best interests. I love tending to my watermelon patch; it helps me to feel a sense of control over my environment, even when as an adult, I can’t just do whatever I want. I can’t even control what kind of plants I grow, because I grow some of my watermelons from seeds I saved. But, I do know that the watermelons are delicious when I nurture them just right, and it’s immensely gratifying to know that I am solely responsible for creating such a patch. All of my motivation to grow the watermelons, therefore, is still intrinsic. I would hope that you would find such a topic to write about.”

“Hmm, I think I understand,” Asuka responded, even though she didn’t.

“Good — I actually need to go to a meeting soon, and you should get to thinking about your topic some more,” Kaji said, getting up from his desk chair and grabbing a briefcase from the desk. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to escort you out.”

“But, professor!” Asuka said, standing up too.

“I’ll see you in class,” he said, winking as he walked out the door, leaving Asuka still standing there in his office.

“Something I’m intrinsically interested in,” Asuka voiced aloud, unsure of how the words felt in her mouth.

~~~

“I’ve gathered all of you here today to discuss a very important issue,” Misato said as she began the meeting, which Shinji and Asuka had been forced to attend, both somberly and soberly, a rarity for the grown woman. “We need to submit a performance to this year’s Lip-Sync competition!”

In addition to Shinji and Asuka, Touji, Kensuke, Mari, a couple of older students, and Kaji were seated around the meeting table. Shinji, Asuka, and the rest of the first years merely sat there with puzzled looks on their faces.

“I know what you’re all thinking,” Misato continued. “What’s lipsync? Maya, will you do the honors?”

“Yes, ma’am!” enthused Ibuki Maya, a graduate student who was working on her thesis under Nerv’s computer science department.

“Okay,” she said, turning to the still-confused first years. “Lip sync is a competition where campus organizations — from res halls to regular orgs, and even some of the departments — compete with each other to perform the best dance routine while lipsyncing to a song. Usually there’s some kind of theme for the songs, like ‘breakup songs’ or ’kidz bop.’ It sounds kind of weird, but it can be really fun! Everyone gets dressed up in costumes, and the energy that the competition generates is just amazing.”

“This year’s theme is disney movies,” Misato chimed in.

“Yeah, we thought Casper should do Beauty and the Beast!” added Maya.

“That sounds nice,” deadpanned Asuka, “but what does this have to do with _me_?”

“You’re going to be Beauty–” Misato began to say.

“But of course!” Asuka exclaimed, as she immediately began imagining how her amazing performance as Belle would win the respect and acclaim of her peers.

“–And Shinji will be the Beast.”

“ _No!_ ” shouted Asuka, crossing her arms, as her vision was instantly shattered.

“But, Misato!” protested Shinji, not looking forward to actually having to spend time with her roommate — like, who does that?

“Look, we’ve been hearing a lot of…concerns about you and Shinji’s relationship as roommates,” Misato began to say.

“What the hell? That’s _my_ business!” Asuka whined.

“Do I really _have_ to?” Shinji asked.

“Yes, it’s for each other’s good as much as it is for your own, and that of your friends and neighbors,” Misato admonished the two.

“Just listen to her, kids,” added Kaji. “I learned the hard way that that’s what’s best, or maybe, easiest.”

Misato elbowed him hard and said, “Now, your professors are going to be notified that you’ll be absent for the next week.”

“ _ **What?!**_ ” both teens yelled, this time in unison.

~~~

Asuka was lying down in bed when her phone chimed.

_Ding!_

Mari:  how are you doing, princess? :)

Asuka sighed.

Asuka:  i’m wearing this ridiculous outfit that misato is making us wear!

Asuka:  i hope that prof kaji doesn’t see me like this, he’s going to be one of the judges for lip sync this year!!

Mari:  …i don’t understand what you see in that guy :/

Asuka:  i think you’re just jealous

Mari:  (…)

Mari:  well, you know me, princess~ ;3

~~~

Shinji stepped on Asuka’s foot for the fifth time not in the last three days, or today, but during _this practice._

“Ouch!” Asuka shouted, nursing her foot, “Why do you have to always get in my way?! You’re going to make me look bad!”

“As if I’m not also making myself look bad,” Shinji muttered, her face getting hot at the thought of having to do this on a stage.

Ritsuko and Misato were both looking on. Ritsuko had brought one of her residents, Ayanami Rei, because Casper and Melchior were going to be doing a joint performance — not enough people signed up in either dorm.

“Are you sure they’re not just going to end up killing each other by the end of this?” Ritsuko asked Misato.

“They’ll be fine — I think,” Misato replied.

“There’s probably a 0.0001% chance at this point that you’ll actually get them to work together, judging by their performance at this point,” Ritsuko mused.

“Ever the scientist, eh?”

Rei stood next to the two older women, watching Shinji and Asuka make their umpteenth attempt at doing the solo dance that would be the major feature of their performance.

“Hey, Rei,” Misato suddenly said, “Would you like to try?”

Rei looked up at Misato, and nodded.

“Hey, Asuka, switch out with Rei here!” Misato called.

Asuka took one look at Rei and swore under her breath. “What, you think this _special snowflake_ — what the hell’s up with the blue hair?! — can do better than _I_ can?!”

“Don’t be rude,” Misato cautioned.

Rei immediately took Asuka’s place in the dance with Shinji. Shinji blushed, she wasn’t just dancing now, she was dancing with a total stranger! Surprisingly, though, as they went through all the motions, Shinji was able to avoid Rei’s feet the entire time, and they remained completely in sync with the music, too.

“What the hell!” Asuka exclaimed. “Shinji, have you just been trying to mess me up on _purpose?!_ ”

“I think that Rei is merely matching Shinji’s pace,” Ritsuko observed. “You do tend to rush a little bit, Asuka.”

“That’s just because Shinji’s so slow!” Asuka angrily retorted, stomping towards Shinji as Rei moved out of the way.

“I think you’ve been going a little bit fast, too,” Shinji told Asuka, having just been able to do the whole thing practically perfectly without her.

“Fine, fine, that’s basically the same thing, right?”

No, not really, but I guess that’s as much as I’ll get out of her, Shinji thought to herself.

This time, however, they were far more together — no feet were stepped on, and they were only a little bit off from the music (whether Shinji was slow or Asuka was fast, or both, was up for debate).

“Was that your plan all along?” Ritsuko whispered to Misato.

“It was a little bit of a long shot,” Misato admitted.

~~~

Shinji stood behind the curtain, her knees wobbling as she looked out at the crowd.

“And now, we have Casper and Melchior performing Beauty and the Beast!” the emcee announced. The crowd outside cheered.

“What are you waiting for?!” Asuka grumbled from behind her. “Get out there!”

“I-I,” Shinji stuttered, just as Asuka pushed her out onto the stage, following close behind.

They got into formation; Shinji’s knees were still jelly.

The music started. It seemed to Shinji that her feet were more intelligent than she was at the moment; though her mind was frozen in terror, she was doing all the right steps and all the right twirls, and it seemed like the backup dancers around her were doing the correct moves too. But her heart was racing at a million miles an hour, and maybe she was breathing too hard or was there not enough air in here or?

The music stopped.

“What?” Shinji whispered, forgetting for a second where she was.

“Take a bow!” Asuka hissed.

It’s over? Shinji thought as she tried to bend at the waist, still hyperventilating. She was seeing stars, and the stage seemed to rush up to meet her…

~~~

Shinji rubbed her eyes. Something about her head was throbbing, and she felt like she’d been run over by a bus.

“Wha, where am I…?” she wondered aloud. She looked over next to her. It was Rei, the girl she’d practiced dancing with a couple of days ago. She was seated next to Shinji on a chair, reading a book.

“Ah, you’re awake. This is the infirmary,” Rei informed her.

“Wha-what happened?” Shinji asked.

“You fainted last night, after we finished the performance. We won, by the way. But, you got a light concussion from hitting your head on the stage floor.”

Oh yeah…I was having a panic attack. “Oh…really? Have you been here all night?”

Rei nodded. “I was assigned to watch you, to make sure you weren’t suffering any brain damage.”

“Oh, no, I’m sorry!” Shinji exclaimed as she tried to sit up. Instantly, she was hit doubly with a head rush and her concussed brain telling her to calm the fuck down. Groaning, she sat back into the pillow behind her.

“Don’t move,” chided Rei. “It will only make it worse.”

“I’m so sorry, though, you got no sleep because of me!”

Rei merely shrugged. “There’s no need to apologize; I’m already an insomniac, and I often spend most of the night in the infirmary anyway because I have medical problems,” she said, as nonchalantly as if she were talking about the weather. “I was only doing this as a favor to Dr. Akagi.”

Professor Ritsuko? Shinji thought. “Are you sure?” Rei nodded again. “Oh, but still, thank you, Rei,” she said, smiling.

Rei looked at her, surprised, and blushed; Shinji wasn’t expecting it, her skin having been so pale.

The door to the private infirmary room slammed open, and both occupants jumped a little.

“Shinji!” a certain redhead cried out. “What the hell happened to you?!”

Shinji winced at the loud noise as pain bloomed in her head; suddenly, the number of people in the room tripled as Misato, Mari, and Ritsuko filed into the room too.

“Asuka, please be quieter, Shinji has a concussion after all,” Ritsuko admonished Asuka.

“Princess was really worried about you, Puppy Boy~” Mari told Shinji with a wink.

“No I was not!” Asuka grumbled defensively. “I was just, like, concerned — will I have to be quiet all the time in our dorm room from now on? Am I going to have to tiptoe all over the place!”

“Of course, Princess,” Mari conceded, winking once more at Shinji.

“Hey, what’re you trying to say here?!” Asuka yelled as softly as she could as Mari just laughed.

“You did great, Shinji,” Misato said, setting a vase of flowers next to Shinji’s bed. “Here’s a get-well card from all of the RD’s.”

Shinji simultaneously blushed, and sneezed. “Thanks, Misato!” she said, after Rei passed her the tissue box.

“Why does Shinji get flowers?!” Asuka exclaimed indignantly.

“Shinji’s got a concussion,” Misato reminded her.

“Well…as long as we get to share the flowers in our room,” Asuka said.

“Sure,” Shinji said, not wanting to make Misato feel bad by mentioning that she was actually a little allergic, and, thus, clearly did not mind _giving_ the flowers to Asuka either. Maybe later, when Misato wasn’t around.

Are things really back to…to “normal,” whatever “normal” was? Shinji thought to herself. She looked around the small room at all the people she was getting to know. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ended up being much longer than I intended it to be, but I enjoyed exploring Asuka’s character more in this chapter, especially through Kaji’s philosophical semi-bullshit about his watermelons. I feel like Asuka’s character is often ignored or even reduced in dimensions, and I wanted to be able to showcase a little bit more of it, even if that meant postponing other things.
> 
> Also, I feel like this fic is mirroring Rebuild in some ways because I gave you that one little teaser with Kaworu in the first chapter but haven’t featured them since. But don’t worry! There’s going to be more in the coming chapters. c;
> 
> Sidenote: usually when we talking about "syncing" at women's colleges it's about periods, orz.


	5. Mullets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinji begins to grow an unsavory hairstyle, and Kaworu offers to fix it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: homophobia

Shinji knew her hair was really getting too long when she could barely concentrate on her studies or even just get some decent sleep. The back of her neck was just too ticklish for her to do well on her midterm exams, and her pillow only seemed to direct the tips of the growing hairs right back into her sensitive skin. More troublesome still, it was still too short to put up in a ponytail.

She knew she'd have to get a haircut eventually during the school year if she wanted to not grow a mullet — and even though she identified as a girl, short hair was just much more practical. Who cares if her dad told her she looked like a lesbian, functionality should matter more and like, Shinji was definitely not gay, so what was the problem...right?

Even Shinji herself admitted that she was making too big of a deal about her anxiety to get a haircut. Now that Asuka and she were on better terms, and she was no longer concussed, perhaps she just needed something new to complain about, as her dad liked to put it. Normally, she looked forward to such occasions because no one ever touched her gently — she even liked dentist appointments for the same reason (as long as her teeth weren't being drilled or pulled). But the thought of having to make conversation with the stylist, the mere possibility that she would be seen in public with the old, worn, maybe even only half-washed clothing that passed for her wardrobe, absolutely paralyzed her with fear, which unfortunately, tended to make her babble and complain. 

"I just don't know what to talk to them about!" Shinji whined from her bed, lying on her back. Asuka happened to be there doing a yoga class from a pirated fitness series playing on her laptop. At the moment, she was supposed to be breathing deeply with her eyes closed, in lotus position.

"What the hell do you mean? Just walk into a salon, tell them what you want, sit there and play on your phone, throw some money at them, and then leave! Who says you have to make small talk!?" she barked, opening one eye to give Shinji a death glare.

"Well, like, Asuka…" Shinji started, pain starting to well up in her eyes against her will, "it's not like I really have money to pay for a salon either..." 

"Ugh, well then, there's your problem! Get a job or shut up about your stupid hair," she grumbled, moving into child's pose.

Shinji blinked away the few tears and decided to not incur the wrath of her roommate for a second time in the past month (as if they hadn’t just gotten over the first) and went on facebook to distract herself from her scratchy, itchy neck. She clicked idly on the Nerv 2020 facebook group. To her suprise, there was an advertisement pinned to the top of the page:

Kaworu Nagisa  
October 1, 2016  
Need a haircut but don't have the time or money to visit some bougie suburban salon? Just message me to make an appointment! Prices negotiable, just pay what you can.

Shinji quirked an eyebrow: Facebook was rarely so helpful. Then her eyes focused on the icon next to this Kaworu person's name: it featured an incredibly fair and undeniably pretty face framed by fluffy grey hair -- the same one Shinji had accidentally stared at on that first day, at the org fair!

Maybe this isn't so helpful at all — it was one thing to have to make small talk with a virtual stranger, but such a-such a beautiful stranger?! Who also goes to your school? Who you will have to see around campus even if you make a horribly embarrassing comment? Who you’ve already made a fool of yourself in front of at least once? (And don’t plan on doing so again?)

Against Shinji's better judgement, she clicked on the icon anyway, bringing her to Kaworu's profile. Before messaging them though, she flipped through Kaworu's many, many facebook photo albums. There were shots of them on vacation, thousands of selfies, a lot of which were taken with nauseatingly large groups of people, and all of them featured a smiling fluffy-haired face. Their profile picture looked almost professionally done, and Shinji hoped to god that Kaworu was wearing makeup in it because no one should be able to look that naturally pretty, that perfect.

Shinji felt like eyes were on her, she felt so creepy, but Asuka was still focused on her yoga. She navigated back to Kaworu's main page; to her surprise, this perfect being was in her own class year! What the hell, no first year should look this put-togeher…

Just looking at the tiny thumbnail of Kaworu's profile pic was enough to make Shinji's knees feel like jelly. The thought of even messaging such an (objectively, obviously…) attractive person was enough to make Shinji's knees quiver in fear; Kaworu just seemed so intimidating!

Before Shinji could stop herself though, she'd opened up Facebook Messenger and clumsily smashed her hands on the keyboard and hit the enter key:

Shinji: hey! i saw your ad on the 2020 page, i was wondering if you could give me a haircut sometime? it's not too urgent, so if ur too busy or sth it's okay!

Instantly, the "read" message popped up.

Oh god…what have I done? Shinji panicked.

Kaworu: (...)

Shinji stared at the little animated dots that Facebook used to let you know the other person was typing. She'd been memorizing the animation for the past five minutes. What could possibly be taking this Kaworu person so long? Her heart pounded in her chest, her ears burned, and if the message didn't pop up right away, she was sure she would hyperventilate and faint again–

_Ding!_

Kaworu:  That sounds good! When and where would you like to meet?

They even use perfect grammar, punctuation, and capitalization while texting — who the fuck is this person? Shinji thought as she scrambled to reply.

Shinji:  oh umm well any time that's convenient for you like friday afternoon or this weekend would work!

Read again. This time, Shinji didn't have to agonize for long.

Kaworu: Friday afternoon would be lovely! Is 4:00 good? And, if it’s not too much trouble for you, we could meet in my dorm room. I'm in Melchior 527.

Shinji's heart was about to explode.

Shinji:  yes perfect i'll see you there!

Sent. Shinji immediately cringed and shut her laptop before she could see Kaworu's reply, breathing hard and cursing herself for being so awkward. Luckily, Asuka had some of those stupid wireless headphones on and couldn't hear how pathetic she was at interacting socially.

_Ding!_

God, I forgot about my phone. For the second time that day, she went against her instinct to avoid and glanced at its screen:

Kaworu:  See you tomorrow!

I wish a hole in the earth would open up and swallow me whole, I’m such a mess, getting worked up over the smallest things, Shinji thought as she planted her face into a pillow and groaned inwardly, ruffling a hand through her evolving baby mullet. She would only have to deal with it until tomorrow, then…


	6. The Haircut

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinji has an appointment with Nerv's unofficial student stylist, Kaworu.

Shinji scuffed her tennis shoes against the hardwood floors of the hallway, outside of Melchior 527 (according to the name tags, apparently this was also where Mari lived, though she’d never mentioned it), trying to kill the two minutes before she really had to go and knock on the door.

 _Kaworu…dorm room…person I’ve never met before…Kaworu…dorm room…_ Shinji’s anxious thoughts cycled constantly.

Unfortunately, this didn’t make time go any faster. Shinji’s watch still read 3:58, and twiddling her thumbs was definitely not making the anxiety go away. Usually, she was so late to everything, but the thought of being late and making a bad impression on this practically angelic being had made her five minutes early — a first for Shinji’s eighteen years.

Shinji was just about to knock on the door — why not be just two minutes early, after all — and had worked up just enough nerve to get close to the door but not enough to knock on it when the door swung inward. Shinji jumped as suddenly, her grey-haired peer appeared in front of her.

“Oh, hey, you’re early! Ikari Shinji, right? Nagisa Kaworu, but you can call me Kaworu,” Kaworu said, the words practically rolling off their tongue as they smiled effortlessly but warmly at Shinji. “Oh, and they/them pronouns.”

Shinji could tell that their smile was genuine because the corners of their eyes were turned up. “Ah, th-then you can call me Shinji! And u-uh she/hers,” Shinji stuttered out. Kaworu’s smile was throwing her off; she didn’t meet many people who didn’t want something out of her in return, and she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d been smiled at like this; maybe before her mom died? And Kaworu was still smiling! _And finally…someone else who’s the T in LGBT…I think this is the first time I’ve been able to tell someone in real life my pronouns, now that I think about it…!!!_

“Ah, won’t you come in, Shinji?” Kaworu asked. Shinji snapped out of it and nodded eagerly, almost too eagerly, before following Kaworu into their dorm room.

It was a double, like the ones in Casper, but maybe slightly larger, or perhaps Kaworu and their roommate had just arranged the furniture better than Shinji and Asuka did. Kaworu had set up one of the school-issued chairs in front of a desk that they’d put a nearly floor-length mirror on top of so it really was like going to a real salon.

“Okay, so what kind of cut would you like,” asked Kaworu, crouching down low behind her so they were practically speaking right into Shinji’s ear.

She blushed as she felt their breath on the sensitive skin there. Are they doing that on purpose, or are they just oblivious? “I-I just wanted a little trim!” she exclaimed, embarrassed even though she hadn’t done anything.

Kaworu chuckled. “Okay, we’ll go slow then,” they said, pulling out the electric clippers and snapping on a medium-size guard. “Let me know if you want to stop.” They flipped on the buzzer, and began moving it close Shinji’s mini mullet.

Shinji tensed as the clippers drew near, loud things always scared her but the knowledge that the loud thing was also _sharp_ also freaked her out. Even more concerning, the clippers were not dull at all; they moved through her hair like a hot knife in butter, clumps of her hair falling away like a sheared sheep’s wool. But Kaworu was careful, and the way they looked into Shinji’s eyes and said, “It’s okay to relax Shinji, I won’t hurt you,” as they rocked the clippers against her scalp made Shinji’s tireless nerves calm down a little, even though she was so unused to people who didn’t want to cause her pain.

Kaworu finished grooming the back and sides and switched off the clippers. Shinji felt her ears ring a little, but quickly forgot about it as Kaworu ran their fingers through her hair.

“How’s this?” they asked, dusting off the excess hair. Shinji almost didn’t hear them; their fingers on her scalp just felt so _good_ , each digit combing through the newly shortened locks.

“Shinji?

“Shinji?” Kaworu repeated.

She was suddenly startled out of her daydreaming. “Oh, um, sorry–“

“It’s quite alright.“

“Um, you can continue,” Shinji finally answered, blushing again as she realized she’d been spacing out.

They nodded in response as they switched back on the clippers. The two continued on in this way; Kaworu checking in with Shinji periodically to make sure they weren’t cutting her hair too short, Kaworu’s warm eyes meeting Shinji’s in the mirror every so often. When they did, Kaworu would smile, and Shinji’s cheeks would repeatedly be flushed with hot, red blood as she smiled shyly back.

“What do you think of Nerv so far?” Kaworu asked after they switched to a tiny, almost cute pair of clippers for the final stage of grooming, making the edges all neat.

“Oh, um, it’s okay,” Shinji said.

“Your father is in the engineering department, no?” Kaworu asked.

“Yes,” Shinji replied.

“Is it nice, having your dad so nearby? Family brings joy to the soul.”

Shinji flinched; “nice” and “dad” really didn’t belong in the same sentence, much less “family” and “joy,” at least for Shinji. But at the same time, she felt guilty; Kaworu was an exchange student from Germany, so their family was a whole plane ride away: how ungrateful would she sound if she said the truth?

“Well, my dad aren’t very close. Ever since my mom died, he’s closed himself off to me, and he refuses to talk to me unless he needs something out of me. If it weren’t for the money situation, I would’ve gone to college somewhere far away,” Shinji said, everything spilling out all of a sudden. I never talk about this, why did I say that to Kaworu? She braced herself for Kaworu’s immediate rejection.

“I’m so sorry for your loss; I didn’t know,” Kaworu immediately apologized. Shinji immediately felt her heart clench in guilt, as if she had forced them to say such a thing. “It would seem that your heart has been taken advantage of by one that should’ve been most responsible for protecting it.”

“I-I just don’t know what to do about it,” Shinji said, relieved to finally be able to talk to someone about her terrible father.

“You’re not responsible for your dad’s wrongdoing,” Kaworu reassured her. “We cannot fix our parents’ mistakes; only focus on not making them ourselves. There,” they said, switching off the tiny clippers. “How’s that?” they asked, pulling out a neck duster and removing the excess little bits of hair.

Shinji reeled a little bit at the sudden change in topic. “Oh, it looks wonderful!” she exclaimed. “Umm, how much?”

“You seem to have enough troubles, I won’t make money be even more of an issue.”

“K-kaworu, I don’t understand–“

“It was my pleasure.”

“But Kaworu! T-then I owe you one!”

“You don’t have to owe me anything.”

“At least let me pay you _something_!"

“It was my pleasure, I insist.”

“Really?”

“Really. It was a pleasure talking with you, Ikari Shinji,” Kaworu said, smiling as they helped Shinji out of the chair.

Shinji felt herself smile back. “S-same here!” she stuttered as she nervously dusted more hair particles off her clothing.

The corners of Kaworu’s ruby eyes crinkled once more.

~~~

Shinji got out of the shower, having washed off all of the little hair bits from her body, and walked into her room toweling off her newly shortened hair.

_Ding!_

Shinji picked up her phone from where it was lying on her bed to read the notification.

Facebook  
You have (1) new friend request from Kaworu Nagisa.

Without realizing it, Shinji smiled as she swiped on the digital bubble to accept the request.

_Ding!_

A new text — Kaworu, again.

Kaworu:  I really enjoyed talking to you today! I’d like it if we could be friends outside of this business transaction.

Shinji’s heart pounded. _They…they want to be friends with me? Me?_

Shinji:  i really enjoyed it too!

Before she could stop herself, she found herself typing and hitting the enter key again.

Shinji:  …kaworu, why are you so nice to me?

Kaworu:  Because you are deserving of kindness. :)

In spite of herself, Shinji blushed once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last of the chapters that I had written before I published the first chapter. I've been trying to just publish them (I guess I only have enough energy to write or to publish, both make me anxious in different ways aha). I'm currently doing summer uni classes, we just started last week actually, so hopefully they don't take up too much of my time so I can write some more!


End file.
